Standstill

FIRST DRAFT A man finds himself alone in a world where time has stopped.

“My name is Jason Ferrell. I don’t even know why I’m recording this considering I don’t think anyone will ever hear it. I don’t think anyone will ever do anything at all, for that matter. I haven’t actually seen another person for the last twenty or so years. At least, I think it’s been twenty years. Somewhere around there, anyway. Counting days has been pretty difficult, because days don’t really… move anymore. Everything just stays right where it is. Everything. Actually, let me rephrase that. It isn’t entirely true that I haven’t seen anyone else. There are lots of people, billions of ‘em even. But like everything else, everyone is just stuck there.

Listen, this is how it happened. Okay, well, I don’t know how it happened, but this is what happened to me. In the spring of two-thousand eleven, I was sitting in the cafeteria between classes at Penn State. I was by myself. Look, I was about fifteen years older than everyone else, ok? That’s why I was by myself. Anyway, I was reading a book and minding my own business when I noticed that everything seemed to get eerily quiet. I looked up from my book, James Joyce’s The Dead, and everyone was sitting totally still. I mean totally still. It was surreal--- the lack of sound, the lack of movement, that strange feeling I got that made me look up in the first place, almost like an audible vertigo if that makes sense… I’ll never forget that. Being well versed in the trickery of humans by wasting countless hours watching stupid, mindless videos on the internet, I’d seen enough wedding proposals and pranks and whatnots in which everyone acts like time is frozen. Everyone is in on the joke, except one or two people, ha-ha-ha, et cetera, et cetera, so I assumed this was what was happening and watched and waited for someone to make a move and blow the whole thing. But they didn’t of course. That would have been normal, and nothing is normal anymore. That’s why I’m recording this, remember?

After a while, I felt a little uncomfortable. Somewhere right around the time I realized none of these people would have any reason to play a joke this sophisticated on me, because… well, I didn’t really know any of them. That’s a lot of effort to trick a stranger. So I got up and went over to the closest person to me, a young dark haired kid who was mid-process drinking a cup of hot Starbucks coffee. I sort of knew the kid through a class the previous semester. No, I don’t remember his name. What I do remember is his innate inability to prevent himself from blurting out obnoxious things in class, and that he was pretty annoying. He was the kind of guy that tells a joke and then laughs before anyone else does, like you needed help knowing when to laugh or something. I shouldn’t say was, because he still is¸ he just… isn’t? It’s confusing. I poked and pushed him a few times and didn’t get a reaction. I yelled and jumped around right in his face, but there was no reaction to that either. I pulled the hand holding the coffee to his lips away from his mouth and turned it a little, so it poured right into his lap. It steamed. It soaked into his pants. It dripped all over the floor. He didn’t move.

So what did I do then? Well, I went and took another coffee from a nearby table and after some hesitation and fear of retaliation, threw that one square in his face. Nothing. Ever have someone throw hot coffee in your face? No, I haven’t either, but I’m pretty sure I would start screaming and flailing about and clutching at my face. I shouldn’t say nothing happened. His skin started turning all red, like when you get a minor burn. You know what I’m talking about. So, yeah, that was about the time I knew that something pretty fucked up was happening.
            I left the cafeteria and went out into the parking lot. The same thing was happening outside. The same thing was happening everywhere. After a while of walking around, I sort of lost track of myself, and I found myself about halfway home, on foot. I guess I sort of blacked out and went crazy or something for a bit. Mind you, I lived about twelve miles from the campus, and at the time I was a fairly lazy person with a round belly. Not so much anymore, though, I’ve done a good amount of walking since then. I mean, I wasn’t Lard A*s from Stand By Me or anything, but walking home wasn’t exactly my M.O. if you catch my drift. The roads had cars on them, stopped in place, with people still driving them. I mean, they weren’t going anywhere, but they sure looked intent on their tasks. Some of them looked pretty ridiculous caught mid-face doing something like yawning, or picking their nose. I’ve gotten used to how silly people look when caught unawares.

Yes, it occurred to me that I could just take one of these cars and see if it would work, but at that time I didn’t have any idea what was happening exactly, and grand theft auto wasn’t something I was willing to risk. I know better now, of course. And yes, they do work, for the record. The cars. The problem with them is that there are so many still in the middle of the streets, you have to drive around them all, or get out and move them. Would you feel like taking the time to do that? Me either. I’ve been using an ATV for getting around. It’s sidewalk-able.

            So, let me fill you in on things about stuff. I mean literal stuff. I’m sure you’re asking “Well if everything is stopped, how can anything be working?” Yeah, I asked that too. This is my theory- I don’t know if it’s true, I’m not a scientist, ok? But what I figure is that the laws of physics, or, some of them anyway, still apply. Like Newton’s laws of motion- those seem to work out just fine. I can push something, and it will move and stop with friction or opposite force. That stuff still works. So I figure that time itself actually gave out. How? Why? I’m stumped. I figure Father Time had simply had enough, and was pissed at the other laws, so he quit. Obviously that’s not true but, look, I have no idea what happened, or why I am still able to move around and why no one else does. Maybe God is having himself a big chuckle up there. Or maybe he had a stroke. Can that happen? Can gods have strokes?

            So, stuff, yeah. Things are just there, but here’s the killer part. Since time doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, things don’t go bad. Meat at the supermarket is still just as good today as that date on the label from twenty-eleven. Now that’s a big plus for me, because I’m never at a loss for food or drink. The only problem at first was cooking it. Electricity doesn’t work without something to power it, and I’m not exactly qualified to run an electric plant by myself… or at all, for that matter. Gas-powered generators, on the other hand, work just fine. I found a small trailer for the ATV and usually bring a generator with me everywhere. Gas has never been a problem. Every car on the street has at least a little, and it only took a little exploring to find a tanker full of it. Also the underground tanks at the gas stations are pretty loaded, I can just leave the lids off and drop a bucket in anytime I need some. It’s not like anything is going to get in there. Nothing does anything. So any place I go, I’ve always got a little bit of gas and a generator with me. Living without electricity is for cavemen. Things might be weird, but I wasn’t about to go all primitive or anything. Sometimes I get lucky, and a house I’m staying in already has one and I don’t have to bring it in.

            For a while I thought there had to be other people out there who were just like me. I set up fires. I even turned on those giant friggin’ spotlights they use when there’s some grand opening at some store or whatever. I left them on for days straight, with a note on the truck saying where I was. It was usually the building right next to it. Not a single damn person. Was it lonely? You bet. But it isn’t always bad… I never had to deal with people, and that can be a blessing sometimes, right? Sometimes I wonder if this happened to everyone, and if in some other person’s frozen-time-universe I’m still sitting there in the cafeteria reading that book. The Book That Took Forever!

            So, to get it out of the way, yes, I went back and looked for my family, and yes, they were right where they were, stuck in place, stuck in time. I try not to think about it, but I guess it’s not totally bad because, well, they aren’t dead, right? I mean, they are still warm to the touch and haven’t decayed or anything, so, for all purposes, they are “alive.”  Maybe everything will start up again sometime and we’ll all be one happy family of humans again. It might sound stupid, but I still go and visit them and talk to them sometimes, like they can hear me or something. My family, that is. Hey, you probably do the same thing at cemeteries or whatever, so I’m no different, don’t judge me! That’s a little joke there, ha ha ha, get it? Of course not.  None of you can move. Joke’s on me I guess.

            I’m sure you have thought back to what I mentioned about twenty years or so having gone by. I know, it’s a long time. So what did I do for those twenty years, you ask? A better question may be what didn’t I do. There was a point where morals took the high road, and I took the low. Well, some morals. I still respected the actual people who are “around” but pretty much everything else was fair game. For example, just to see what it was like I have lived in every house in the neighborhood that I grew up in, for at least a month at a time. I slept in their beds; I went through their closets and attics. I looked through all of their drawers. I took any clothes that fit if I wanted them. I don’t do laundry or anything, I just take new clothes and wear those. It’s a lot easier. I read diaries. I watched home movies of people and their children, and sometimes of people “making” their children if you catch my drift. If you have been through as many homes as I have now, you wouldn’t be surprised anymore at how many people actually have that sort of stuff. It’s far less rare than most people would have you believe.  Nothing surprises me anymore.

            One of the strangest and most spectacular things that I encountered was weather. I did a bit of traveling around because, well there was nothing else to do really. When you get to a place that was raining when everything stopped… raindrops just frozen in place in the air. Oh, you still get wet when you walk into them, but it’s visually quite stunning. I almost wish it were winter when everything stopped, that would be a sight. I guess there is nothing stopping me from just taking a boat and going to find a place where it was snowing, but wandering lost in the sea doesn’t seem like a good time, and I’m no Captain Ahab. I feel like more of a Queequeg nowadays.

            Oh, this was a good one. One time I solved a murder. Detective Ferrell, that’s me! Well, not really. I came upon a house that had police cars out front and caution tape around it and everything. Inside was a woman who had been shot, and there were people frozen in place taking photos and doing all of their police-type stuff. How did I solve it, you ask? Well, it wasn’t hard. I found her husband in the basement of the house, naked, and dead from what looked like a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, holding a picture of her. It seemed pretty cut and dry to me. I don’t think I could have solved a really tough case or anything, but it seemed pretty obvious what happened. I know, it’s not like I really did any police work or anything, but, the point is, the world is full of things like this going on. Without someone to physically keep you out, you can walk on in to anyplace you want.

            On that note, I walked in to quite a few places that I had no business being. Bank vaults, research labs, prisons… mostly just to look around. I didn’t even take anything from the vaults, I don’t really need it. Everything is free for me anyway, so what good is money? The only place I went that I couldn’t get into was the Pentagon. I mean, I could get in, but I couldn’t get into any of the good stuff. Those areas are on serious lockdown, and I gave it a real heave-ho too. It’s too bad, I was hoping for some real interesting stuff in there. I bet the government would be proud to know that I couldn’t cut the mustard on that one. Their security setup was able to keep me out even in an unhindered attempt. Too bad it doesn’t matter anymore, I guess.

            Now you’ll remember that I started by saying that I haven’t actually seen another person during this whole time, and that I doubt anyone will ever hear this, right? Well, part of the reason I decided I had to record my story here is because I am afraid that may change soon. I’m pretty sure there is someone else around now, and I think something is very, very wrong with them. About two weeks back I went to the supermarket I have been frequenting for a few months now, and someone, or something, had literally… cut the people who were there to pieces. All these people, the whole store... All of the injuries were clean cuts, they weren’t ripped apart like an animal would have done it or anything. This was intentional. And the supermarket was just the start. I started to see this happening in a direct path to the neighborhood I was staying in at the time. All of the people on the streets, in the houses on the way… all of them. Kids too. But not the animals for some reason. I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for that one. Things got scarier than that. Whoever it was knows I am here, too. I went back to the house that I was using after watching the supermarket from a distance trying to get a glimpse of whoever this beast was, and there were notes nailed to the front doors of every home. They all say the same thing. I’ll read it for you. It said:

            “It has been so long and nothing changes. There’s only one explanation for this. This is Hell. If I am already in Hell, and you are present too, there is only one person you can be. I know you are here, I have seen evidence of changes. You could be any one of them, so I am destroying everyone I see. Whatever it takes to get out of here. That has a nice ring to it… the man who killed the devil! I’m coming,” and it was signed as “you know who.”

I skipped to the other side of town once things got weird, and I won’t be staying here long. Hah, got weird. As if this whole thing hasn’t been weird enough? Oh brother. I took several dozen of these mini recorders from all of the stores that had any, and I’m going to copy this tape and leave it in every one of them. I think I am going to hang them from the doorways outside of the police stations with a note. I figure most people will still go there, false sense of security or something or other. So, I’m leaving. I’m now carrying a gun I took from a police officer, some extra clips of ammunition, and I’m off. I guess I’d rather run than die. If you are the person responsible for the notes, I assure you, I’m not the devil. As to how to convince you that it’s true, I haven’t the slightest idea. I thought about trying to find you and talk it over with you, but if I have a gun, well, you probably have a gun too, and I don’t fancy the idea of being shot before I can even say a word. This recording is as much for you as it is for anyone else.

So, that’s really all I have to say everyone. Maybe we will meet someday, on safe terms and in an open arms environment. Maybe the world will start again. Until then, I’ll just be moving from place to place, and leaving these tapes behind. My story. Farewell.”

Author's Note

This is a first draft, I'm looking for inconsistencies and what works and or doesn't work. I took a break from fiction for a while and am trying to catch myself back up to speed. Any comments are appreciated.